Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. This web cam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too… depending upon weather conditions.

Aloha Paragraphs

Satellite imagery shows tropical storm Norbert far to the east, along
with former tropical cyclone Marie well northeast of Hawaii…
the lower picture shows a closer view of Hawaii

The trade winds will gradually strengthen over the next few days…remaining active through the rest of the week. Here’s the latestweather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean, along with a real-time wind profile of the central Pacific. We find a moderately strong high pressure system to our northeast. At the same time, there’s a former tropical cyclone to the northeast of Hawaii…which continues to be nearly stationary. There’s also a whole host of other low pressure systems to the northwest of Hawaii. We’ll see daytime sea breezes gradually giving way to light to moderately strong trade winds going forward...locally stronger in gusts.Satellite imageryshows clear to partly cloudy skies over the islands…with cloudy areas and showers over the islands locally. Looking at this larger looping satellite image, it shows areas of thunderstorms far offshore to the southwest and south. The light winds will prompt afternoon clouds and showers over our leeward upcountry areas at times locally…some will be quite generous. Although, as the trade wind flow firms over the next few days, the windward sides will collect most of the incoming showers. Here’s thelooping radar, showing showers moving across our island chain, which will continue in an off and on manner, becoming less active later Wednesday and Thursday. We may see an increase in showers later Thursday into Friday, as some of the moisture from now retired tropical cyclone Marie arrives in our area. I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above and below, I hope you have a great Tuesday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Gulf of Mexico: Former tropical cyclone 05L(Dolly) is dissipating inland over Mexico, located about 90 miles west-southwest of Tampico, Mexico…with sustained winds of near 30 mph. Here’s a graphical track map…along with a satellite image.

Eastern Pacific: Tropical Storm 14E(Norbert) remains active in the northeast Pacific, located about 240 miles south-southeast of the southern tip of Baja California…with sustained winds of near 65 mph. Here’s a graphical track map…along with a satellite image. Here’s what thecomputer modelsare showing for this storm.

Here’s a wide satellite imagethat covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.

Interesting:How did humans domesticate wild rabbits? – Until recently, little has been known about what genetic changes transform wild animals into domesticated ones. An international team of scientists, one of whom is a University of Montana assistant professor, has made a breakthrough by showing that genes controlling the development of the brain and the nervous system were particularly important for rabbit domestication.

The study was published Aug. 28 in Science and gives answers to many genetic questions.

The domestication of animals and plants, a prerequisite for the development of agriculture, is one of the most important technological revolutions during human history. Domestication of animals started as early as 9,000 to 15,000 years ago and initially involved dogs, cattle, sheep, goats and pigs.

The rabbit was domesticated much later, about 1,400 years ago, at monasteries in southern France. It has been claimed that rabbits were domesticated because the Catholic Church had declared that young rabbits were not considered meat, but fish, and could therefore be eaten during Lent. When domestication occurred, the wild ancestor, the European rabbit, was confined to the Iberian Peninsula and southern France.

“The domestication of rabbits depended upon small genetic changes in many genes rather than more radical mutations in a few genes,” explained Jeffrey Good, UM assistant professor and a co-author on the study. “This pattern contrasts with the large-effect genetic changes that are typically associated with striking differences in the size or appearance of diverse domestic dog breeds, for example. These results are exciting because they shed light on what types of genetic modifications are likely to be important during the early stages of domestication.”

Aloha Glenn – Have you been tracking the lava flow in Puna?
While it is slow and erratic, the flow is only a mile from some friends’ homesteads.
People are making plans to move animals and valuables. Self storage space is full already. In a very lovely way people are stepping up to offer care for farm and house animals. The community here really pulled together when the hurricane devastated neighborhoods recently, so we’ve been practicing aloha. Stay tuned for Pele.~~~Hi Peter, good to hear from you again. This is great news, as the community pulls together, which is a great feeling. That tropical storm that hit the Puna area was major, and now this lava flow on top of it…nature sure has her way with things! Best of luck to all involved on your Big Island! Aloha, Glenn